Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on extensive primary source documentation, this lively study of US air assault operations and North Vietnamese countermeasures assesses the clash between two highly contrasting approaches to warfare in a particularly challenging landscape.
The tactics and technologies of modern air assault--vertical deployment of troops by helicopter or similar means--emerged properly during the 1950s in Korea and Algeria. Yet it was during the Vietnam War that helicopter air assault truly came of age and by 1965 the United States had established fully airmobile battalions, brigades, and divisions, including the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).This division brought to Vietnam a revolutionary new speed and dexterity in battlefield tactics, using massed helicopters to liberate its soldiers from traditional overland methods of combat maneuver.
However, the communist troops adjusted their own thinking to handle airmobile assaults. Specializing in ambush, harassment, infilt
Table of Contents
Introduction The Opposing Sides Operation Masher Operation Crazy Horse Tam Quan Analysis Aftermath Unit Organizations Bibliography Index
